Julianwilson my home town produces most of the nuclear submarines for our navy and emlyn Hughes was born there too
Swindon is the birthplace of both the Railways and the National Health Service.
[i]And how do you propose these knives carry seven sacks? [/i]
[b]racks[/b]. Knife racks. Magnetic ones.
The Mill below our house was Charles Dickens' inspiration for Oliver Twist
MrNutt - MemberSwindon is the birthplace of both the Railways and the National Health Service.
swindon is a shit hole
Swindon is the birthplace of both the Railways and the National Health Service.
says who?
Home to the oldest football team (Sheffield FC) and the team that has been at their current ground the longest (Hallam FC).
Sheffield FC is in Dronfield
I like where I live; an hour by bike to the Peaks, lots of local good stuff, 24 minutes to Manchester, and the chippies are the bestest in the world. In fact, some claim that the worlds first chippy was here...
These used to be built where I live.
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racks. Knife racks. Magnetic ones.
I'm lost here, is this your own version. 😀
Joe none of the colleges at Cambridge are as old as the university, hence the Ipswich fact(?) Good old Wolesey got as far as building a gate and then quite lost his way!
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To have been a rival to Oxbridge but for his downfall
It's one of only 5 Chartist settlements built as a new model village for the oppressed working classes in 1847.
Idea was great, just did''t work though
every house had 3 or 4 acres to be self sufficient plus school house, meeting house store & chapel.
But people moving out from the northern working cities who won the lottery for each house just could'nt take it
Shame really could have been great modern utopia
Sandwich my point was that the uni was founded, and some of the colleges (Peterhouse 1281 I think) before Henry VIII was born so he couldn't really have unfounded it. I did my 3yrs there, albeit at an ex-ladies college!
Most of these were made in my hometown...
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also this famous boat was made here,despite the sea being about 30 miles away.....
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That's what happens when I rely on local dodgy folklore. 😳
While we're on a Dickens theme The Great White Horse Hotel was mentioned in the Pickwick Papers after he stayed there. It's a Starbucks now 😡
Wells once had 3 railway stations. But since 1963 it's had none.
The cathedral astronomical clock is amazing: [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Cathedral_clock ]Click[/url]
Derby's Bold Lane multi-storey car park was once voted one of the top 10 most secure places in the world, alongside Fort Knox, Air Force One and Area 51!
As recently as the 1970s the district of where coolhandluke lives had one of the highest proportions of derelict land, mainly in the form of slag heaps left over from coal mining
Nice!
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/articles/2008/06/27/nhs_swindon_60th_feature.shtml ]BBC says Swindon birthplace of NHS[/url]
and also, there are the "seven wonders of Swindon"
which are:
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1: The Tower of Brunel
Originally known as the David Murray John Building, this 88 storey collosus is not only the highest building in Wessex but it also has a very reasonably priced cafeteria. For more information, [url= http://www.jasperfforde.com/swindon/7ws_1.html ]click HERE[/url]
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2: The Hanging Baskets of Babbington
Surely one of Swindon's finest areas of horticultural calm, the famous hanging baskets of Babbington draw in excess of 70,000 visitors a year. For more details, [url= http://www.jasperfforde.com/swindon/7ws_2.html ]click HERE[/url]
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3: The Double Helix of Carfax
Not only the first stressed spiral concrete construction in the world, but also the inspiration for Frank Lloyd Wright's clearly inferior Guggenheim museum in New York. To learn more, [url= http://www.jasperfforde.com/swindon/7ws_3.html ]click HERE[/url]
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4: The Lighthouse on Alexandra Road
Constructed during the Great Global Warming Scare of 1832, this famous Swindon landmark is unique for being the only lighthouse in the world invisible from any navigable waterway. More details, [url= http://www.jasperfforde.com/swindon/7ws_4.html ]click HERE[/url]
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5: The Statue of Vavoom at the Bus Station
Just one of eight bronze colossi that once lined the procession route to the 1980 Swindon World Fair, the statue of local celebrity Lola Vavoom has to be seen to be believed. To learn more, [url= http://www.jasperfforde.com/swindon/7ws_5.html ]click HERE[/url]
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6: The Cathedral of St Zvlkx (site of)
Despite the fact that nothing whatsoever remains above ground, the medieval cathedral that once graced this site was an equal to Chartres or York. On-site tours available. For details, [url= http://www.jasperfforde.com/swindon/7ws_6.html ]click HERE[/url]
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7: The Elgin Llamas
One of the more visible members of Swindon's spectacular urban wildlife, the demand from Peru for their immediate return is hotly contested by the City Council. For more details, [url= http://www.jasperfforde.com/swindon/7ws_7.html ]click HERE[/url]
the uni was founded, and some of the colleges (Peterhouse 1281 I think) before Henry VIII was born so he couldn't really have unfounded it.
The one I went to (Tit Hall) was founded nearly 150 years before he was born!
LOL at the swear filter getting that one (without even the right number of letters!)
Preston North End had the first black player in English football - a goal keeper in the 1890s.
The man that owns the company that makes those inflatable bananas (as well as kiss-me-quick hats) lives just outside Preston. Coincidence? I hope so.
Derby had the first factory in the world (Silk Mill), only statue of 'Bonnie' Prince Charlie in the world (this is as far south as he got)
Advanced Passenger Train was designed here.
Cricket is paid at The Racecourse and until recently football at the Baseball Ground.
Richmond Upon Thames has the only view in England protected by an act of Parliament, 1902 as it happens.
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The last formal duel ever fought in California took place in Fairfax in 1861. The town is named for an English landowner named Lord Charles Snowden Fairfax, on whose property the duel took place. In the exchange, Daniel Showalter killed Charles Piercy at a party where the insult had apparently taken place during lunch and satisfaction was reached before tea time.
PNE footy pitch used to be astro turf and the football museum is based there. Also I've met sir Tom Finney. The chap who played R2D2 in star wars lives less than two miles from me. I can see St wallburgs church from my house, an the spire is the second tallest in europe. The M6 does by pass the city. Most likey for the best. Preston isn't in the "LP" guide book to great britain. The KFC was the first in the UK. Prestons bus station is on the list of buildings you must see before you die. Preston is the newest city in the Uk. The Uni has 30,000 students making in the 6th biggest in the uk.
I have my own postcode. Stick those 4 letters and 3 digits only on an envelope and it'll come to my house.
I once lived on the street where the first flying bomb to hit London, er, hit.
I was not living there at the time.
[i]I'm lost here, is this your own version.[/i]
It's the original version, which was considered too sensible for cornish types, who preferred to imagine a polygamous bloke watching each of his seven wives/sisters lugging around 392 felines.
As I was going to St Ives
I met a man with seven knives
Each knife had seven racks
Each rack had seven cats
Each cat had seven ****s*
Tw@s, cats, racks, knives
How many were going to St Ives?
*It's the radiation from all that Radon.
Seventh best place in the UK - FACT
[i]The chap who played R2D2 in star wars lives less than two miles from me.[/i]
I once took Kenny 'R2-D2' Baker for dinner to interview him for a magazine I was writing for at the time.
His legs are too short for him to sit comfortably on a car seat without modifications, so he was standing in the footwell on the way home, a little worse for wear after 2 halves of Guinness.
Got pulled over on Blackpool Road and had to explain to 2 very bemused coppers why I had a drunk dwarf standing in the front of my car!
Back to the factoids, Preston's Kenny Baker is the only actor to appear in every one of the Star Wars films. He bought his Mercedes off Dave Prowse, better known as Darth Vader or the Green Cross Code Man!
Longest /. highest / deepest canal tunnel in the country starts (or ends...........) in Marsden.
Surprisingly (to me....) the railway tunnels that are alongside it don't seem to merit the same accolade....
Village was also a luddite stronghold and ( a traditionI'm hapy to uphold....) and, the Big Mill opposite our gaff was, apparently, the largest of its type in Europe when it was built, can find out if that is fact though......
I don't live there now, but:
It's the real birthplace of railways (not bloody Swindon, Mr Nutt)
It's where the friction match was invented. That's two of the most important inventions of the 19th century.
It claims the widest high street in England.
It's now a right sh1thole.
Ridley Scott (Bladerunner, ALien, Gladiator, Thelma & Louise etc) went to school there (my school), and the opening shots of Bladerunner with gouts of flame shooting from chimneys etc, was supposedly based upon his memories of the nearby chemical works.
i used to live in grays. it's a complete sh!thole but surprisingly full of history.
the town is built in and around old flint and gravel pits. used to make for good riding when i was a kid.
nearby Tilbury has one of the best examples of a Blockhouse fort. built origianlly in 15-something. there is another smaller Napoleonic fort, Coalhouse. there is now a cycle/walking path between the two. supposedly hard going but never ridden it.
Elizabeth 1 addressed her troops (on the field outside my mates house) as the Spanish Armada sailed up the river.
Alfred Russel Wallace, antropologist, biologist type guy, was born and bred in Grays. Wallce independantly came up with his own ideas on evolution. it was because of him that Darwin decided to eventually publish his ideas on evolution - before Wallce could do the same.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit and a Jamioqui (sp?) video were fimled in the town using the old theatre.
Russel Brand comes from Grays. sorry about that one.....
if you go over the tracks to Seabrook Rise, you will find drugs.
Chelmsford - where i sort of used to live - is the birth place of radio. Guglio Marconi developed and first transmitted radio from here.
is the only town with a cathedral that is not a city. some people call it Chelmsford City, but they are wrong.
Richard II moved his head quaters to Chelmsford during the Peasant's Revolt.
god i'm bored.
was in Lindau, Germany, for the best part of a year. it is an island town sitting in the Lake of Consatnce (Bodensee - whcih translates to Floor Lake(?)) it is the only Bavarian town to have an international harbour.
there is no official border between Austrai, Switzerland and Germany as far a s the lake is concerned.
it is full of old people in summer where it seems they come to die. being a busy train terminal many ambulances get stuck at the crossing, either trying to get onto the island or to the hospital the other side of the tracks. because of this many people die at the crossing in the back of an ambulance.
there used to be a small concentration/work camp on the edge of town during the 30's/40's.
nearby Friedrichshafen is home to the Zeppelin airships.
now in a 'village' just outside Munich, called Haar which literally means Hair in German. but it comes from old Bavarian meaning forest clearing, Hardt.
across the tracks is the old (and current) mental hospital. it's the building where crazy people, children, jews etc taken to after being selected from nearby Dachau. then Dr. Mengele proceeded to do his nasty tests on his "patients". the building still stands. bit odd really.
it is a realy boring plac to live. everywhere is flat for 10 miles or more. annoying because you can see the alps.
J
Home to 1/3 of the worlds fresh water,
I don't think that's true about Michigan. Lake Baikal has more water than all the great lakes put together. And yes I know that there are lots of small lakes but no way is that as much area as the other lakes combined, and hence less than Baikal. Plus Minnesota has more lakes iirc. And in any case, Greenland alone contains more than 10 times as much water as Baikal in its ice sheet.
Leominster, where I grew up, has the largest parish church in the country. It's also a candidate for the most mis-pronounced name in England.
I was born in Boston, lincs. This is the most annoying place to have been born since EVERYONE says 'oh, you were born in America!' NO YOU TOOL THERE'S MORE THAN ON BOSTON. It's also where some of the Pilgrim Fathers sailed from to Amsterdam before going to the New World. Boston in America is not however so-named because of this, but because a radical vicar of the church in Boston encouraged a lot of people to emigrate for religious reasons and he himself helped to found the colony.
"The name Hanslope consists of two parts. The first is a persons name, Hama, and the second, the old english word slæpe. Hanslope therefore means 'muddy place or slope of a man called Hama'."
And no, it's not that great for riding in the winter...
Britian is a multicultural country
Preston's Kenny Baker is the only actor to appear in every one of the Star Wars films.
apart from Anthony Daniels.
st ives: you were.
Sheffield: Has more scruffy bastards in 10 year old Rab coats than any city in the world. ( I blame Rab himself)
[i] Preston's Kenny Baker is the only actor to appear in every one of the Star Wars films.
apart from Anthony Daniels. [/i]
And Ewan McGregor's uncle
That'll be Dennis Lawson
Here's mine - despite proudly proclaiming itself as "The Honest Toun" there are loads of thieving ****ers in Musselburgh, East Lothian.
andyp - yer alright, i'm an honourary lancastrian these days.. 😀
I was not living there at the time.
Shame 😉
Here in Guernsey we have our own money which although sterling is not legal tender in the UK and we still have £1.00 notes.
Our pillar boxes are blue
I live in the village of Sorn, Ayrshire, home to the UK's first convicted and jail-sentenced Internet Stalker. According to a bloke I was talking to the other day.
Michael Palin grew up in the house three houses down from my parent's house/the house i've grown up in.
Tim